Monday arrived and with it the happy knowledge that we are staying here til at least Wednesday having decided to have some rest days. We are moored alongside in stunning Moraira – lots of nautical activity here to keep Skipper Nigel occupied and fabulous paddle boarding.
We really did relax on Monday – we didn’t go far from Gemini J and lots of snoozing took place. The aborted crossing plus the actual crossing had certainly taken it out of us. We inflated the paddle board and dinghy ready for action the following day. We had enjoyed the sunsets in Ibiza and were happy to find the stunning skies continued here.
The next morning I hopped on the paddle board and had a lovely calm paddle around the beautiful bay. I still haven’t quite got confident enough to be taking photos yet mind you. I gave Nigel a surprise when I stealthily pulled alongside and popped my head through the window.
The water in the marina here is really clear and there are so many fish. At night they jump about and we even found one in our dinghy that we had to tip back into the water. Nigel fed them a little bit of bread and it was like having our own personal aquarium.
By Wednesday we were sufficiently relaxed to start stocking up ready for our onward voyage so after paddle boarding, shopping was the order of the day. The afternoon paddle board was replaced with a walk since it was quite windy and slightly choppy.
The sea in the bay where I go boarding is so clear it’s amazing.
Thursday arrived and we were off ! We had to get the marineros to give us a helping hand in their zodiac boat since we were pretty tightly packed along the pontoon and manouvreing out of our space would have been tricky to say the least.
Unsure of our destination since scattered rain was forecast we wanted to see the conditions out at sea. As it turned out they were fine, light winds and little swell. We headed back towards Calpe and round past Benidorm.
We had made good progress and we continued past Villajoiosa where we had stopped on the way over and on to El Campello, 30 nautical miles. We had been to Club Náutico Campello before and found ourselves once again in a very friendly and calm marina. I wandered over to the office with our paperwork and back via the castle that overlooks the marina.
The next morning we were away by nine and off out around the headland to Alicante bay. We got the mainsail out and motored making good speed – soon enough we were almost at Isla Tabarca and the Santa Pola headland.
The water turned to mirror glass and we had to work to keep the limited wind in the sails – taking down the Genoa for a while. We took turns on the helm and I felt just like Mary Poppins when I got the umbrella out for shade – it was another hot day despite being the 1st October.
As we passed Torrevieja the conditions changed completely and unexpectedly, the wind picked up to a breezy 17 knots and the water became really quite choppy. We were once again close reached but hacking along at nearly 6 knots. We made much better progress during the afternoon and got to San Pedro del Pinatar by 5pm which was great. Another 41 nautical miles in our log.
We spent the evening relaxing and were happy to see S/Y Alandar arrive back on an opposite berth. Pablo was an acquaintance when we had Gemini J here 3 or 4 years ago and we managed to have a quick catch up. It was great to see a familiar face, a shame that we were departing the next day or we could have caught up a bit better. Once again we were weather driven but with a windy front coming through all weekend we had decided to head back to Cartagena and home before conditions turned.
The next morning we were anticipating some swell / choppiness after the previous afternoon but we found the sea like a mirror once again. We were treated to multiple sunrises thanks to cloudy skies and it was well worth the early start for the stunning views out to the horizon.
We went out on our familiar route past Isla Grosa and on to Cabo de Palos then just a hop along the coastline and back just in time for (late) lunch.
And so we are at the end of our trip – Gemini J has looked after us amazingly well and is back on her berth awaiting a good clean and polish and we are off home for a bit of the same 😉
The Adventures of Gemini J 